Greenbush town manager recuperating from boating accident

GREENBUSH, Maine — After suffering injuries Sunday in a boating accident on Upper Cold Stream Pond, Town Manager Jerry Davis hopes to return to work by Friday, Town Council Chairman Charlie Adams said Monday.

Davis, 53, told Adams that he feels a bit banged up but will probably be released from Penobscot Valley Hospital of Lincoln on Tuesday, Adams said.

“He is not too bad,” Adams said after a Monday visit. “He broke a couple of ribs, and he looks like he came out second best in a boxing match.”

“I think he is going to be a little tender with those ribs for awhile,” added Adams, who once suffered broken ribs himself. “It is kind of like somebody driving a spike into your side.”

Davis was driving his 15-foot 2006 Bombardier Seadoo when witnesses said he took a hard turn at a high rate of speed, got caught up in the wake created on Upper Cold Stream Pond — which sits between Lincoln and Burlington — and lost control of the boat, Warden service spokesman Cpl. John MacDonald said Monday.

“When he did that, it knocked him to the ground in the boat,” he said. “The boat continued on at a high rate of speed and crashed on shore, and [Davis] was ejected.”

The boat hit the shore near 51 Petite Road in Burlington, and a nurse practitioner helped to render aid to Davis, MacDonald said.

Davis also suffered a head injury and was probably knocked out when he hit shore, Adams said. Rescuers thought they might need a LifeFlight helicopter to take Davis to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, but the injuries were not that severe.

“As near as I can tell, he must have been lucky and missed all the big trees,” Adams said.

Adams gave the former Lincoln code enforcement officer high marks for his work as town manager since April 2011. Davis, he said, is very proficient and organized, working as the town’s code officer, landfill manager and road commissioner in addition to managing town government.

“He has taken all these classes and been a great help to the town,” Adams said.